Abstract

Monitoring forest resources in Mediterranean environment using remote sensing techniques. Since the Neolithic pastoralism has played a major role in the landscape changes of the Mediterranean basin; during the last century the increased anthropic pressure on Mediterranean ecosystems (overgrazing, fires, overcultivation of unsuitable areas) led to severe land degradation phenomena. The typical Mediterranean forest ecosystems have undergone a progressive and steady depletion, resulting in very fragmented and heterogeneous landscapes. In this context monitoring forest resources at regional scale represents a major issue towards the identification of areas threatened by land degradation where mitigation actions have to be carried out. Remote sensing is a powerful tool for monitoring natural and forest resources due to its synoptic and multitemporal characteristics. Nevertheless, the heterogeneity and rapid dynamics of secondary vegetation after disturbances (overgrazing or fires) make complex the use of the traditional classification techniques of remote sensed images. In this study we present preliminary results obtained with the application of traditional and innovating procedures for land cover classification (Maximum Likelihood Classification, Spectral Mixture Analysis) in central-eastern Sardinia.